The House of Representatives decided on Saturday morning that recounts are necessary at four polling stations in Tilburg. Inexplicably large differences have been found there during the first counting of votes for the House of Representatives elections and the standard recount. For example, a difference was found for twelve parties at one of the polling stations. In another there was a difference of sixteen votes. According to political scientist Marcel Boogers, this shows that counting is really ‘human work’. “But also that not one specific party is advantaged or disadvantaged and that is good news from a democratic perspective.”
It is unique that the House of Representatives is recalled from recess and even during the weekend to decide on a recount. The recount in Tilburg must be held on Saturday or Sunday. Given the differences, there is little chance that the distribution of seats in the House of Representatives will change, but according to political scientist Marcel Boogers it is a good thing that a recount will take place. “This prevents discussion about the validity of the result.”
After all, the electoral council has already determined the outcome of the elections, but if there is a counting difference of more than fifteen votes, the so-called Credentials Committee can recommend a recount. This is to remove all doubts about the result. “That is completely right, because you do not want situations like after the elections in the United States,” Boogers explains.
The fact that the old House of Representatives had to decide on recounts has happened before. But the schedule is now different due to the new Elections Act. As a result, MPs had to rush to The Hague on Saturday morning. Because in order to decide on such a recount, at least 76 MPs must be present.
The counting differences at the polling stations at the locations Beatrix College, OBS de Fonkel, Parochiezaal de Goede Herder and Wijkcentrum Zuiderkwartier are significant, but according to Boogers this is not immediately a concern. “Counting is human work and mistakes are made. That is why there are these controls. The democratic process works.”
At the polling station at Beatrix College the differences are not very large:
- D66 suddenly has five fewer votes during the second count,
- New Social Contract has eight additional votes.
There are also differences at the OBS De Fonkel polling station:
- D66 loses six votes,
- GroenLinks/PvdA suddenly has ten more.
At the Good Shepherd Parish Hall:
- After the second count, the PVV suddenly has nineteen votes fewer,
- DENK is also missing seven.
At Wijkcentrum Zuiderkwartier, a counting difference was noted for no fewer than twelve parties:
- The VVD has nine more votes after the second count,
- GroenLinks/PvdA actually loses sixteen,
- The PVV has fifteen extra.
According to political scientist Boogers, the counting differences found show that there was no deliberate manipulation. “It would be much more worrying if there were counting differences among one or two specific parties, but that does not seem to be the case here.”
Yet he cannot explain why a difference of 49 votes was found for the VVD at another Tilburg polling station. The polling station at Sportcafé De Blaak first counts 613 VVD votes and later there are 662.
Although Boogers does not think that the distribution of seats will change, he thinks it is a good thing that there will be a recount. “Because in the end, 160 votes were decisive that the remaining seat did not go to D66, but to the SP. You just want to be sure that it is correct.”
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